About Alan
Alan Harrison combines engineering training and legal education in a practice centered on patents. He earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Northeastern University in 1994 and a J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law in 2005, where he studied intellectual property law. He is admitted to the Connecticut bar and is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
He began working in patent practice as a patent agent in 2007 at McCormick, Paulding & Huber. That role put him on the technical side of prosecution work. In 2010 he became a lawyer at the same firm, moving from agent to attorney and taking on responsibility for drafting and prosecuting patent applications.
Over the next several years he expanded his practice to serve a range of inventors and companies that needed help protecting mechanical and electromechanical innovations. In 2016 he joined Otterstedt, Ellenbogen & Kammer as a lawyer, handling patent preparation and prosecution and counseling clients on patentability and filing strategy. He kept working on technical inventions, often drawing on undergraduate mechanical engineering training to assess inventions and shape claim language.
In 2023 his résumé shows several firm changes. He worked as a lawyer at Botos Churchill IP Law and then at Whitmyer IP Group. Later that year he became Principal at Sandollar. The moves reflect a path through several boutique intellectual property practices, each focused on patents and client counseling. Throughout these changes he continued to work before the USPTO and in Connecticut courts and regulatory matters where applicable.
Outside of his practice he participates in professional and alumni organizations. He remains a current member of the Connecticut State Bar. He also serves on the board of the Central Connecticut chapter of Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society, which ties back to his undergraduate training.
He is certified as a patent lawyer by the United States Patent and Trademark Office and holds active registration there. He works with clients on patent prosecution, drafting patent applications and responses to office actions, and advising on portfolio development and patentability assessments. He practices at Sandollar Law, where his work focuses on patents for mechanical and related technologies.
